What is all this about users?

Ok... I have finished my package install (10 minutes! thats very quick!) It asked me about a root password (which i assume is like the master user, right?) and im cool with that .... then it asked me to create a user... do i have to create a user? or can i just use my computer as the root user? Some one in yahoo chat told me I must create a user and use that one but did not go into a lot of detail...

Thanks for the help!

It will help to create a user, if you are planning to screw your system up easily then log in as root all the time, you've been warned, root can do anything on the system from tuning to screwing it up completely, a user will not have an advantage to screw the system unless he has a right to do so, or intends to do so, like a malicious user.

ok.. so i take it that i must use a regular "user" for everyday things... ok thanks a lot!

it's not necessary to create a user - if you've heard anything about lindows, then they're an example of a linux company that only uses the root user. the problem this creates doesn't really have anything to do with stability, but security. one of the reasons there are hardly any linux viruses is because it's almost impossible for a virus to do any real damage if it's not the root user. same thing with any other security problem.

in truth, using root all the time on a desktop will not cause any real short-term problems, since root can do anything a user can. the problem is mainly related to servers. it is, however, very good practice to just create a user with regular user privledges and just use that all the time. if you ever want to configure or play around with your system more, or if you make an unfortunate mistake, for whatever reason, you'll be thankful.